GRANBY — Filing is to open next month on two East Newton R-6 School Board seats up for election on April 2.

According to superintendent Todd McCrackin, the two seats are currently filled by board president Mark Knight and board member Keith Guinn. Those terms are for three years.

According to information provided by the R-6 school district, some of the qualifications for someone to apply include: a citizen of the United States of America; a resident taxpayer of the district; will have resided in Missouri for a minimum of one year preceding the election if elected; at least 24 years of age; am eligible to hold office in accordance with Missouri law.

Anyone interested in running for a position on the school board in the April 2, 2013 election can file at the school district’s central office, 22808 E. Highway 86, Granby. Candidates must form a line at the superintendent’s secretary office entrance. Filing will begin on Dec. 11 at 8 a.m. and will continue during the district’s regular business hours, which are from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Filing will not occur on days that the school district’s offices are closed due to inclement weather. Filing will also not occur on the following holidays when the school district office are closed: Dec. 20, 2012, beginning at noon through Jan. 1, 2013. Filing will end on Jan. 13, 2013.

During Thursday’s school board meeting, the board heard about the school audit.

“That is one of the annual agenda items that we do in November, is when we receive our school audit back,” McCrackin said. “Everything turned out well, we were pleased with the results.”

A report was also given about the safe room, which is being constructed at the East Newton High School.

“The safe room project is pretty much right on schedule. All of the exterior walls are up and being welded together,” McCrackin said. “Then the next thing that will be taking place is putting the flooring in the safe room. Most of the work will start back up after Thanksgiving break is over with. That is progressing nicely and it is on schedule. Most of the work now is going to be inside and, obviously, being inside during this time of the year is going to be good, so we should see a lot of progress and hope for completion on the expected date of Feb. 1.”

Information about the safe room

• The structure will be around 5,000 square feet.

• McCrackin told the Neosho Daily News in early September that, “The estimated cost is going to be right around $1.4 to $1.5 million. There is a 75/25 FEMA match on that. We are receiving roughly around $800,000 federal funds. School district is going to pick up the 25 percent and then of course, anything that is extra in the structure is on the school district’s end. What FEMA gives you is just a shell, a building, so when we stick classrooms in there, we have to have walls and things like that. So those things are on our dime.”

Page 2 of 2 - • Nabholz Construction Corporation, of Springfield, is the construction manager for the FEMA safe room project. Once completed, it can house up to around 600 people in the event of a tornado.

“Our high school student population is 465 students; then you have the staff during the day and the surrounding community,” McCrackin said.

However, in the event of a tornado in the evening or during the weekend, there is a procedure.

“In receiving the grant, you have to set up and submit an operations procedure for it,” he said in an earlier interview with the Daily News. “And it will be set up when the tone comes in for a tornado warning, that the building will unlock and then at that time, we have various staff members in the area that will become the facilitators to the building, stay here and manage it and operate it until the storm warning has expired and they will be locking the building up, that is at nights, weekends. Of course during the day, it will be the responsibility of the building principal and administrator.”